Sic transit gloria mundi

Or in other words, "thus passes the glory of the world". That's what my granny says when weeping over the fainting charm of long gone eras and that's what I felt when passing by the small Hungarian village of Ötvös, once a model farm. Today, the former Széchenyi-castle looks bleak and shabby. Some kind of folks live in the building; at least, this is my impression from the "eyesoring" parabolic antenna mounted on the tattered roof and the laundry hung out to dry in the foregarden. A huge hole in one of the front window screens seems to be covered with a bathtub (!). The cottage of Róza Szegedy (the wife of the Hungarian poet, Sándor Kisfaludy) located nearby looks equally decaying. I wish the castle of Ötvös was only a sole example of how we preserve our national heritage in Hungary. There are, however, many more mansions in such condition all over the country. Here are some of those I have seen: Mesterházy-Castle in Csehimindszent, Mikos-Zierer Castle in Mikosszéplak, Somssich-Castle in Mike. Requiescat in pace.

Vacation Blues

"Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again." /L. Frank Baum/

Summer is on hold, in Holland, in Germany and even in Hungary. The weather has been particularly and unreasonably cold this week, just when we travelled to Hungary for our vacation. That's what I call wretched luck! Bath visits had to be cancelled and alternative plans had to be drawn up. So, that's how we happened to visit the Museum of Blue-Dyeing in my home town, Pápa. Although I am not the biggest fan of resist dyed indigo fabric textiles with flower patterns, the museum was a very interesting and enjoyable place to visit. Besides the original equipments and furnishings of the famous Kluge workshop, a permanent exhibition from the works of Irén Bódy can be seen in the building complex. The dyeing process was a closely held trade secret and the Kluges recorded their knowledge in secret writing, the original copy of this book is also on display.

Amsterdam and me

Ever since I saw the film 'Vincent et moi' (Vincent and me) as a child, I have wanted to visit Amsterdam. And now, I finally did. However, one day is barely enough to do the obligatory tourist sights, such as the Rijksmuseum (Dutch National Museum in Amsterdam), the Van Gogh Museum, the Anne Frank House and the Jordaan district. The Museum Amstelkring and the Filmmuseum shall remain for another day. Anyways, it's so hard to get tired of the amazing canals, the traditional houseboats and the gabled buildings...

The Dick Bruna House

The Dick Bruna Huis at the Centraal Museum in Utrecht is dedicated to the work of the Utrecht-born illustrator, Dick Bruna who created such iconic characters as the white bunny, Miffy (or Nijntje as she is called here in the Netherlands) and her friends, Boris and Barbara Bear and Poppy Pig. The Dick Bruna Huis is, however, not merely a Miffy Museum, because Bruna has such an impressive portfolio under his belt as cover designs for Dutch and international best-selling crime novels - e.g. by Georges Simenon (Maigret) and Leslie Charteris (the Saint) -, poster commissions for Amnesty International, the Red Cross and other organizations, postage stamps, postcards and prints. The Bruna collection consists of more than 1200 works, including original sketches and drawings. Through a documentary, you can learn about how Bruna works and why he feels that simplicity shall be the key to his compositions. It's worth visiting the musueum to learn more about the artist and his legacy that goes well beyond the Miffy world.

"Simplicity leaves lots of room for the imagination, and that's what people find appealing in my work." /Dick Bruna/

Baking Inspirations

I have a thing for vintage cookbooks. They are so inspiring in a time when homemade sweets are almost only limited to cookies, brownies and muffins; they remind one that it is not impossible to prepare pastries like Buchteln ("sweet buns") or Hefekranz ("yeast wreath") and a great variety of cakes at home. My two personal favorites are Hajková, Mária. Édeskönyv. Bratislava: Madách Könyvkiadó, 1986. and Gööck, Roland. Das neue große Kochbuch. Gütersloh: Bertelsmann Lesering, 1963.